Twitter is the latest web 2.0. craze to hit the USA. It is a very simple concept, which is proving very popular with young people, and I can see a spin-off for the Museum sector.
Twitter asks the question ‘What are you doing?’ Having set up an account, I can now text my Twitter page with what I am doing and it is posted for all my friends to see. You can also log in and see what your friends (or strangers) are doing. This is a little odd at first, then very addictive.
So what has this got to do with museums? Well, imagine if people visiting your museum could text comments about items in your collection straight to your website, they could build their own visitor trail which they can share with their friends via the internet. This would bring a whole new level of interactivity to your collection without changing your displays and would provide valuable word-of-mouth marketing.
I would expect to see someone doing this within the next twelve months.
